“The Unknown War”

Write a 1-2 page precis on the main themes from your reading of this study of US foreign policy in an area of the world, East Asia, where the outbreak of war seems an annual betting game like the odds on the Super Bowl. Forget what you read and hear in the media these days about Korea. That is propaganda. What is never mentioned is that the Korean War never ended with a peace treaty. Only a truce. It is referred to as “the Unknown War” because that is how most “decision makers” in Washington, New York, London, and elsewhere in the west would like it to remain – unknown in detail to the majority of citizens in the United States and Western Europe. Probably the majority of these people in power despise the author, but they cannot deny him publication because he teaches at a prestigious university, the University of Chicago, and is rock-solid as a researcher. This relatively short study is based in great part on a two-volume study he wrote on The Origins of the Korean War, 1945-1950, published by Princeton University Press in the United States, and in South Korea reprinted by Yuksabipyungsa Publishers, Seoul. This book, The Korean War, is published by a prestigious New York publishing house and imprint. Professor Cumings is disliked by many because he lays blame where he believes it belongs, on both sides of the war. He does not follow the “North Korea is run by madmen” line favored by the US government. What do you find are the most surprising revelations in this book? If you doubt the authors’ credibility, read the two-volume study I mention above. It is documented with sources in English, Korean, Chinese, and Japanese. These include official US government documents.